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Japan leads world in cloud computing readiness: trade industry

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Japan leads the world in preparedness to support the growth of cloud computing and capitalize on its technological and economic benefits, a global software industry advocacy group said in a report issued Wednesday. The Washington-based Business Software Alliance said that of the 24 economies it ranked on cloud computing preparedness, Japan came out on top because it has comprehensive privacy protections that do not inhibit commerce, a full range of criminal and intellectual property protections, and robust IT infrastructure. (Mainichi)

Woman, 4-year-old son found dead in Tachikawa apartment

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A 45-year-old single mother and her 4-year-old son were found dead in their apartment in Tokyo's Tachikawa City on Feb 13, police said Wednesday. The woman appeared to have died of an illness and the child apparently died of hunger, TBS quoted police as saying. Police said they received a call from relatives of the woman who hadn't heard from her in awhile. They said the woman was found on the floor and the boy was lying on a sofa. They had both been dead for 1-2 months, according to TBS. (Japan Today)

Mazda shares dive on plan to raise $2 billion

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Mazda stock dived nearly 7 percent Thursday after the struggling car maker said it will raise about $2 billion from selling new shares to invest in assembly plants and developing new vehicle technologies. The Japanese company, which makes the Miata sports car, said in a statement it aims to have half of its vehicle production based overseas by early 2016 as part of plans to make its business more competitive. Mazda's earnings have been hurt by the yen's sharp rise, the tsunami disaster last year in Japan, flooding in Thailand and the European debt crisis. Its shares closed down 6.8 percent at 37 yen in Tokyo. (AP)

Asian markets close mostly lower; Nikkei Up

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Most Asian markets ended lower Thursday as fears of recessionary winds hitting Europe continued to weigh after data indicated weak business activity in the region; although Japanese exporters extended their rally on the back of a softer yen, and property stocks in China led the index higher. At market close, the Nikkei was up 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite was also up 0.2% while the Hang Seng gave up 0.8%. The Sensex fell 0.5% while the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries was down 0.1%. Eurozone Purchasing Managers Index showed slight contraction in private-sector activity, falling to 49.7 in February from 50.4 in January. (morningstar.com)

Koji - Japan's vital hidden ingredient

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The development of Japanese cuisine owes much to the humble kōji or kōji-kin. A type of fungus or mold, it is used in all kinds of foods and beverages. It's as important in Japan as the fungi, bacteria and yeast that give character to cheese, yogurt, wine, beer and bread are in the West. The difference is that just one type of fungus is used in so many foods. Kōji (Aspergillus oryzae) was probably domesticated at least 2,000 years ago. It is used to make sake, mirin, shōchū, awamori (an Okinawan beverage), rice vinegar, soy sauce and miso - all ingredients that define Japanese food. No wonder that it was declared the kokkin (national fungus) by the Brewing Society of Japan, and the genome was closely protected until 2005. Besides Japan, it is also used extensively in China and Korea to ferment and mature various foods. (Japan Times)

Advertising spending drops 2.3%

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Total advertising spending in Japan declined 2.3 percent in 2011 from the year before to ¥5.71 trillion, marking the fourth straight year of decline, Dentsu Inc. said Thursday. The fall was attributed to the mood of self-restraint among advertisers in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami last March, according to the nation's largest ad agency. Spending on television ads fell 0.5 percent, on newspapers 6.3 percent, on magazines 7.0 percent and on radio 4.0 percent, to ¥124.7 billion. Spending on satellite broadcasting and online advertising, meanwhile, increased 13.6 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively. (Japan Times)

Fury over Japanese politician's Nanjing Massacre denial

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The mayor of a Japanese city has sparked outrage after playing down a well-documented massacre of civilians in China's former capital more than 70 years ago. An estimated 300,000 people died when Japanese troops invaded the city of Nanjing in China's Jiangsu province in 1937, unleashing a campaign of rape, murder and looting that became known as the Nanjing Massacre. The event was recently portrayed in a movie starring Christian Bale called "The Flowers of War." But earlier this week, Takashi Kawamura, the mayor of Nagoya, told a visiting delegation from Nanjing that he believed only "conventional acts of combat" took place there, not the mass murders and rapes, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. He repeated his assertion to Japanese reporters Wednesday. (CNN)

Researchers locate birthplace of eels

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Japanese researchers said Thursday they have located an area where "ma-anago" (real Japanese conger) lay their eggs, retrieving young fish 380 km south of Okinotorishima Island in the Pacific Ocean. The egg-laying site should be along a ridge at the bottom of the ocean about 100 km south of where the fish were found, based on the direction of the currents, according to the joint team of researchers from the Fisheries Research Agency in Yokohama, the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University. The research team estimated the 5.8-mm fish are just 3 to 4 days old, based on an examination of their teeth and jaws. (Japan Times)

Murder case shouldn't set precedent

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The Supreme Court's No. 1 Petit Bench in a 3-1 decision on Feb. 20 upheld a high court ruling that sentenced a man to death for raping and strangling housewife Yayoi Motomura, 23, and murdering her 11-month-old daughter Yuka in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in 1999. Juvenile Law prohibits sentencing to death persons who were younger than 18 at the time they committed their crime. The defendant, Takayuki Otsuki, was 18 years and a month old when he committed the double murder. A danger exists that the top court's decision could set a strong precedent for trials dealing with heinous crimes by minors. This should not be allowed to happen despite the gravity of such crimes because the possibility of rehabilitation is very high for juveniles. (Japan Times)

Japan merges science centres to cut costs

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The Japanese government is consolidating five of its most prestigious scientific agencies - the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Riken, the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) - into one organisation under the control of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The cost cutting measures will also see the number of independent administrative corporations (IACs) -former national research institutes and governmental agencies - cut from 102 to 65 by merging those under the same ministry. (rsc.org)

'Lonely' starvation deaths prompt soul-searching

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It took more than a month to discover the bodies. Japanese police say the family of three - a couple in their 60s and a son in his 30s - likely starved to death in their own apartment in Saitama Prefecture, just outside of Tokyo. Their refrigerator was empty, their electricity and gas shut off, their rent had gone unpaid for six months. Police only arrived at their home this week after rent collectors called, asking them to check on the family. The bodies were badly decomposed. A few one yen coins, some candy, and water bottles were all that remained. (abcnews.go.com)

US moves to isolate Russian, Japanese crime groups

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The United States announced Thursday moves to lock global organized crime out of the financial system, putting sanctions on the Russia-linked Brothers' Circle and Japan's powerful Yamaguchi-gumi. The Treasury said it was ordering a freeze on their assets and prohibiting any US citizens or businesses from any transactions with them, to attack their economic power and protect the international financial system. "The threat to the United States... is that they use our financial system, they use our commercial system, to both penetrate the markets, to disrupt the markets, and to make use of their illicit proceeds," said Treasury under secretary David Cohen. (AFP)

Foreign residents decrease by 55,000

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The Justice Ministry has reported that the preliminary number of registered foreign residents in Japan was 2,078,480 as of the end of 2011, down 55,671 from the previous year. This was the third straight year of decline since the number of foreigners peaked at the end of 2008, the ministry said Wednesday. A ministry official said the latest decrease could be attributed to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The three prefectures hit hardest by the quake saw particularly large drops: 15.5 percent in Iwate, 13.2 percent in Miyagi and 15.1 percent in Fukushima. (Yomiuri)

Japan completes first preliminary talks with all 9 TPP countries

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Japan held preliminary talks with New Zealand in Wellington on Thursday over bid to join negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative, completing the first round of such talks with all of the nine TPP countries. New Zealand welcomed Japan's interest in joining TPP negotiations but refrained from declaring its support, as did Australia, during bilateral talks with Tokyo on Tuesday in Canberra, Japan's Parliamentary Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi said at a press conference in Tokyo. (Mainichi)

Japan pledges loans to Iraq amid Iran squeeze

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Japan is to offer $530 million in loans to Iraq, in part to help rebuild oil refineries, an official said Friday, as Tokyo seeks to diversify fuel supplies after the tightening of sanctions on Iran. Loans totalling 42.5 billion yen have been pledged to Baghdad to aid the war-ravaged country with four infrastructure projects, including a refinery in the southern city of Basra and another in the northern city of Baiji, a foreign ministry spokesman said. A hospital and telecommunications system will also benefit. (tribune.com.pk)

Tepco bailout largest in Japan since rescue of banking industry

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Tokyo Electric Power Co. is set to receive a government bailout that may cost as much as 11 trillion yen ($137 billion) after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the largest in Japan since the rescue of the banking industry in the 1990s. Japan's government included 2 trillion yen in this year's budget for the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund, the bailout vehicle for the utility known as Tepco. Part of that allocation can be used for the purchase of a stake in Tepco being considered by the government. The government plans to budget 4 trillion yen in the next fiscal year and has issued 5 trillion yen of so called delivery bonds, which the state fund can cash in for financial aid to Tepco. (Bloomberg)

Forced out by tsunami, Japan sushi chef dreams of home

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When the tsunami roared through his northern Japanese hometown of Ofunato last March, sushi chef Sanichi Niinuma managed to escape with his life, but his shop was battered and badly damaged by the raging waters. In the aftermath of the disaster, which killed over 400 in the city, the 47-year-old Niinuma went as far as starting to rebuild his shop -- only to be told by the city that the area was off limits since the land had sunk and power and sewage systems were destroyed. After several months of part-time work, he accepted an offer to take over a sushi shop in Tokyo, becoming one of thousands of people forced out of their hometowns across northern Japan by the disaster in order to make a living. (Reuters)

Trial ends over fatal driving rampage at Mazda complex; verdict due March 9

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The trial of a former Mazda Motor Corp. worker who went on a deadly driving rampage at the carmaker's plant complex in 2010 ended Friday, with prosecutors demanding life imprisonment and the defense seeking his acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity. Toshiaki Hikiji, 44, is charged with murdering Hiroshi Hamada, 39, and with attempting to murder 11 other male employees he struck during his crazed car attack June 22, 2010.

The incident occurred in Hiroshima Prefecture at Mazda's adjoining auto plants in the city of Hiroshima and the town of Fuchu, two months after Hikiji had retired as a seasonal worker. (Japan Times)

Zoo site hacked amid Nanjing fracas

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The website of a city-run zoo in Nagoya was hacked to display messages demanding that Japan acknowledge the 1937 massacre of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, officials said. The posted messages, which included kanji believed to show a Chinese personal name, followed Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura's recent denial of the Nanjing Massacre. The posting in Japanese included messages stating "The history is manipulated!" and "Please acknowledge the Nanjing Massacre!" displayed along with a full-body photo of a man, which appeared after clicking on Chinese characters shown on the top page of the website, city officials said. (Japan Times)

Fast-breeder said realistic no more

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A panel of experts reviewing the nuclear fuel cycle policy in light of the Fukushima crisis has agreed that while a fast-breeder reactor has advantages, from a technology viewpoint it can't be considered a realistic option for the next 20 to 30 years. The nuclear fuel policy involves reprocessing spent fuel to produce plutonium that can be reused to produce electricity. The subcommittee of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission said in a draft document summarizing its discussions that two viable options during the next few decades would be to not reprocess spent nuclear fuel, and to recycle plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, or MOX fuel. (Japan Times)
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